50 follows midnight move

As Wellington Country Park re-opened after spawning, Lewis Read was there to take full advantage and bank the Clean Fish at 53lb 8oz.

Booking Friday off work to get to the Berkshire venue, the Gardner media manager walked the banks and saw a “big, long pale fish jump over in a snaggy corner” and moved into a nearby swim.

However, the area quietened down in the evening and Lewis decided to up sticks at just gone midnight after seeing fish in front of the Grassy Swim.

The Clean Fish went 53lb 8oz

He said: “After casting and scattering some 20mm boilies it went quiet and I drifted off at 4am, just as the light was filtering into the sky.

“When I woke up again at 8.30am I was a little bit dejected that things had seemingly stopped after my move, and I put any excess bits away ready to move again as and when I saw something.

“An hour later I received a positive pull up on the island rod and the line pinged from the clip and I played a slow-moving heavy, ponderous fish that resisted my efforts to get up the marginal slope for quite some time.

“When the fish succumbed to the steady pressure I saw a big wide back with a tell-tale row of stubby dorsal rays that several of the big fish have and I really hoped it was not a recapture.

“As I lifted the mesh the fish rolled on its flank and I saw the bottom lobe that identified it as the Clean Fish – a new one! Yes!”